Photo Gallery

DURANT, Okla. — One fire department in Oklahoma took an alternative approach to saying “merry Christmas” this holiday season.

The Durant Fire Department in Durant, Oklahoma, decided not to feature its brothers and sisters on its Christmas card. Instead, after realizing that six of the 33 department members had children this year, they decided to feature the babies!

The adorable photo shoot, featured on FireRescue 1, a national firefighter website by a local paramedic, shows the babies lying on their parents’ fire coats, sitting in the front bumper of a fire truck, and just hanging in the house.

“Firefighters tend to say brotherhood and family defines their core being. So when this small paid department of 33 looked back on the year and saw that six of their brothers had newborn babies, it was time to show the public what was at the core of their department,” Richard Parker, a paramedic and engineer at the department, wrote.

Parker told Mashable that he was the photographer because before joining the fire department, his dream was to be a professional photographer.